


Little Mysteries II, or A Selkie in Distress

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-27
Updated: 2006-03-27
Packaged: 2019-02-02 18:44:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12732147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: You should read "Little Mysteries, The Colonel and the Selkie" before reading this story, to understand the alternate reality. In this story, a selkie cousin of Daniel gets kidnapped by a wealthy villain. Jack, Daniel, and some of Jack's Special Ops friends go to the rescue. Jack meets some of Daniel's selkie relatives.





	Little Mysteries II, or A Selkie in Distress

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

  
Author's notes: No selkies were hurt during the writing of this story.  


* * *

Little Mysteries II, Part 1

Jack felt a tug on his wetsuit as he came up for air. The frigid November Pacific Ocean water was beginning to cool his body despite the 4 mm neoprene insulation provided by the cold water wetsuit.

/Got to get out soon, or my core temp will drop way too low. God, this feels good, even though I froze my fucking balls off when I first got in! I missed our nightly swims while I was away. No oceans in Iraq, unfortunately. Just sand and camels. No Danny either. It sucked./

A bump that almost made him lose his balance in the rough surf finally got him to turn around.

"For crying out loud, Daniel, you almost knocked me over that time!"

The dark figure of an Atlantic harbor seal reared up next to O'Neill, his blue eyes laughing at the lowly human who groused at him.

"Okay, one more ride for me, then I'll need to get out. I'm starting to get hypothermic. Only few days on the hot sands of Iraq, and I've lost my immunity to the cold."

Now the blue eyes looked concerned, and the seal barked sharply.

"Nah, I'm fine. Just getting tired and a little chilly." Jack reached over and stroked his lover's pelt with neoprene-gloved hands, not for the first time wishing he could feel it with his bare hands. But it was just too cold this time a year not to wear gloves. "Not all of us have thick skin and a layer of blubber to keep us warm, ya know."

Another few playful barks, and Jack said, "I am not getting fat, Daniel! Do you want to take me for a ride or not?"

The seal turned so that Jack could put his arms around Daniel's thick trunk. Jack held on for dear life, and his lover dove into the sea. Holding on like a remora to a shark, Jack felt the exhilaration that Daniel must feel in his seal form as they turned and glided through the surf. After a few minutes of quickly gulped air whenever the selkie surfaced, the human tapped on the pinaped to let him know that he needed to go back to shore.

Daniel moved over to the shallows, but instead of just letting Jack go and taking off into the surf again, the selkie metamorphosed into his human form.

The first time Jack had closely watched Daniel change shape from human to seal form, he'd been struck by the simplicity of it all. It hadn't happened in stages, like something you saw in modern werewolf movies with weird special effects. Instead, Daniel had put his seal pelt over his shoulders and a twinkling silver glow started. Within seconds the man had become a seal. 

A seal with blue eyes, of course. According to Daniel, none of his selkie relatives knew why his seal form had blue eyes, instead of the big liquid brown eyes common to seals. They figured it was because he was half selkie and half human.

"You aren't going to swim for a while longer?" Jack asked, hurrying out of the cold water and up the steps in the cliff that led to their beach house, a naked Daniel close behind him. The selkie's seal pelt was gripped tightly in his lover's hand.

"No. If I stay out there too long, the pacific seals of the area will come calling like they always do, and I'll forget time again as I play with them. Don't want to do that on your first night home."

On the porch, Jack peeled off the wetsuit, dropping it into a vat of fresh water to soak; later or tomorrow he would hang it up to drip dry. He grabbed a towel and started drying himself briskly. Daniel, as usual, just shook off his excess seawater like a dog. It was an annoying habit of his lover, one the older man just assumed was a selkie thing.

"Hey, you hit me! Shake over there, Danny, or use a towel like normal people."

Jack toweled himself off, then took the house key from the inner pocket of his wetsuit and opened the back door. He had turned up the heat a bit before they'd left for their swim, knowing that he'd be chilled when he returned.

"Shower?"

"Sure. I'll get the towels and a clean washcloth and meet you there."

* * *

Daniel was already in the shower stall when Jack came in. He put the towels on the counter, slid the door open and got in behind his lover. 

"Here, let me wash your back."

Daniel turned his head and smiled over his broad shoulder at Jack. "Okay. I'll do you afterwards."

Putting a liberal amount of mint and melissa flavored shower gel on the cloth, Jack started scrubbing his lover's muscular shoulders and back. Because of being a selkie, Daniel's swimmers muscles and those in his arms and shoulders were strongly developed and almost over- defined. The same went for his strong thigh and gluteal muscles. As the soapy cloth moved down over Danny's butt, Jack felt a frisson of arousal start pumping up his cock.

/Not bad, after only two hours since the last time. No viagra needed for this old flyboy, not with Danny around, that's for sure./

O'Neill moved closer to Daniel, who had braced himself with his hands against the front shower wall when Jack had started washing. He rubbed his erection against his lover's butt playfully, a small smile on his face.

"I thought I wore you out earlier, Jack. I guess not."

"It's touching and feeling your ass that did it, and you damned well know it. It does it to me every time."

Daniel leaned back against Jack's body, catching the older man's cock against his cleft. Strong gluteal muscles tightened, catching the sensitive organ in a fairly tight squeeze.

"Shit! I want to fuck you, Danny, now!" His growl sent shivers down Daniel's spine and filled his cock completely. He just loved it when Jack talked to him in that rough and commanding tone.

"Only if I get your ass afterwards!"

"Yeahsureyoubetcha." Jack pulled away from Daniel and stuck two fingers into him, not even trying to soften the blunt penetration. He knew that his lover would still be dilated from their lovemaking earlier.

"Umphhhhh! More!"

Not being able to wait for further preparation, Jack put some gel on his dick and slipped his arms around Danny's waist. His lover canted up his hips and spread his legs in welcome, and he pushed roughly into the tight hole. The feel of those tight muscles around his sensitive cock almost caused Jack to blow immediately. He knew that Danny loved a long, slow lovemaking, though, and he fought for control over his body. He pulled himself out and thrust back in with a twist of his hip, feeling it as he hit his lover's hot spot.

"Faster, yesssss, more!"

"Faster, huh? I'll give you faster..." Forget slow and long. Obviously Danny was in the mood for fast and furious. Jack buried himself completely inside, then pulled out almost all the way. In short, quick jerks, he fucked his lover hard, making sure at the same time to hit the right spot for Danny's pleasure. Within minutes he felt his balls tighten and stars came over his eyes as he exploded, filling Daniel up with his seed. 

"My turn! Back against the wall, O'Neill, now!" 

After pulling himself off of his lover's softening dick, Daniel manhandled Jack around, put gel on his swollen red prick, spread the other's legs, and forced his way into the warm tightness that was Jack O'Neill.

"God, yessss, Jack, you're so fucking tight and warm for me, that's right, groan for me, you hot thing, you..."

Jack smiled despite the slight pain of Daniel's roughness. He was constantly amazed at the way his shy young lover talked so dirty while they were engaging in sex. Totally uninhibited, he was. The smile turned to a grimace as the retired Colonel felt Danny hit his sweet spot and he saw stars again. 

When Daniel came inside Jack, he screamed loud and long, using short jerks to milk himself of every drop of essence. Spent, he finally pulled his dick out of Jack, kissed his lover's shoulder, and reached for the washcloth to continue the clean-up.

This time they did manage to get clean.

* * *

Later, Jack was snuggling Daniel's feet while catching up on the hockey games that his lover had recorded for him while he was away. Daniel was reading one of his ancient tomes, thinking about a translation project he was working on at Stanford University. Every once in a while he mumbled to himself, scratched a few comments into his journal, then buried his nose back inside the book again.

Jack was stroking Daniel's long delicate feet. He loved Daniel's feet, had loved them since they'd first became lovers. The selkie had vestigial flaps of skin between his toes and fingers; these small pieces of skin were soft and delicate, and Jack had found they were also an erogenous zone for his selkie lover.

Without warning, Daniel stiffened and let out a high-pitched keening that raised the hackles on the Colonel's neck!

"Daniel, Danny, what is it? What's happened?"

His lover's eyes were closed and he sat ramrod straight, still making the distressed noise. Jack thought that this would be how an injured seal would sound as he took Daniel into his arms.

Finally the sound ceased, and distressed blue eyes opened to look at him.

"What is it? What's happened?"

"Something's happened to one of my family. He's been hurt or frightened badly, or-or something." The young man got up, moved over to the phone, and picked it up. He picked out an obviously memorized number on the keypad.

/Danny said he didn't have any family. Who's he talking about?/

Jack heard his lover speaking in another language, he thought it might be Gaelic. As he watched, Daniel listened to the other person on the line, he responded again, finally hanging up.

"I have to go to Mull, Jack. Now."

The Colonel followed his lover into the bedroom and started to help with the packing.

"What is it? Who were you speaking to, earlier?"

"Another selkie, he's a lawyer in Glasgow and my mother's littermate, her, um, her brother. My uncle, actually."

"What's happened, Daniel?" Jack stopped the frantic packing by grabbing his lover by both hands. "Tell me."

Distressed blue eyes looked up at him. "One of Jaskie's sons by another selkie, his name is Ophid, has been kidnapped and hurt by someone, we're not sure who. Ophid's remained in the sea, he didn't choose to become human like my mother and Jaskie and some of the others. Someone took him from Seal Island off of Mull. Someone who has hurt and frightened him badly! What I felt earlier was a selkie's distress call. Since I'm only half selkie, I didn't feel it as bad as the others did." At Jack's blank look, Daniel added, "It's kind of like the sound a dolphin makes when trapped in a tuna fisherman's net, a call of distress to other dolphins. Only it is in our heads."

"Selkies are telepathic?"

"Pure ones can read each other's thoughts from a limited distance. I can only pick up images and feelings usually, unless I'm in my seal form, but I can pick it up from extreme distances if the feelings are strong enough." Daniel started packing again. "I have to go help Ophid. There are only a few of us who choose to live as humans. We're the only ones who can help in a situation like this when another human has done the damage."

"I'm going with you."

"But your job..."

"This is exactly what my company does for a living, Daniel. Just calm down, babe, pack a suitcase for me, and let me make a few calls, willya? I'll get a retrieval team on the way as well."

"This is a selkie problem, Jack." 

Jack hugged his surprised lover tightly. "It's your problem, kid, and you're my problem. So it's mine too. Hey, my team's some of the best retrieval specialists in the world, including those on active duty in the military. We'll only be an asset to you and your, um, relatives, and you know it."

"Did you just call me your problem?" Daniel smiled his shy quicksilver grin that Jack loved so much. "They don't have much ready money to pay your people. I know you guys don't come cheap. It'll take time to gather the resources."

"Hey, company policy is that problems involving relatives and significant others of our employees get helped for free. Money isn't a problem."

Danny sighed. "Then I am very glad you'll be with me, Jack. Because anything or anyone that can take a fully-grown selkie by surprise and capture them like this must be really nasty, and my relatives can use all the help they can get. I'll pack while you call your friends, okay?"

"Okay. Don't forget my shaving kit. Selkies might not need to shave often, but furry people like me do."

Again the quicksilver grin flashed. "I won't forget, or I'll get beard burn on my thighs again."

* * *

Part 2

As the plane landed at Gatwick Airport, Jack looked over at Daniel worriedly. The younger man's blue eyes were hooded and he was worrying his lower lip with his teeth. 

"Hey, we'll get him back, Danny. I promise you that, big guy. My team's the best there is."

Daniel reached over and took Jack's hand, squeezing it tightly. "I feel a lot better with you here. Will we be meeting T, Bray, Harry and Sam here, or in Mull?"

"Mull. They need to get some necessary supplies in London first."

"I hope Jaskie doesn't mind that I brought you and your team. Selkie's are pretty clannish, and don't much like outsiders."

"You said your uncle was a lawyer. Hard to imagine a clannish lawyer. It's rather scary, if you think about it."

Daniel smiled at the joke. "Jaskie's more like humans than most of the others. It's funny, but all of my mom's litter turned out more adventuresome than the usual selkie. My mom fell for a human archeologist and became a marine biologist and a marine archeologist. Jaskie decided to fight ocean pollution directly by becoming an environmental lawyer for an ocean advocacy group, and my other uncle, Solahn, became an artist, one who has become pretty famous for his ocean wildlife scenes. Each of them serves the sea and their roots, in their own distinct ways."

"What's a marine archeologist?" Jack asked, more to keep Daniel from worrying than because he cared to know all that much.

"An archeologist who specializes in shipwrecks and ruins on the ocean bottom."

"Cool. Who paid for your mom and uncle to go to college?"

Daniel smiled at Jack. "Do you think it was fairy money, Jack?"

"Nah. Figured they got it the same way everyone else did, by working for it."

"Actually, they got it by selling salvage from shipwrecks. That's an easy way for a selkie to get ready funds. It's how I had enough money to pay my half of our new house. I sure didn't earn that much on an archeologist's salary."

"You found buried treasure? Cool!" 

"You'd be surprised how much is out there under the oceans, Jack." Daniel looked at his lover wistfully. "I wish I could show it to you sometime. It's unbelievable down there."

"I wish I could see it the way you do. I guess I'll just have to listen to your fish stories instead, eh big guy?"

Daniel stroked Jack's hand, one sculpted eyebrow going in the air to show his amusement. "Fish stories. Yeah, I guess so."

* * *

They took a train to the Scottish town of Oban, which was the main jumping-off point for the ferry to Mull island. Jack checked into the hotel while Daniel contacted his uncle, who should have already been on the island by now.

As Daniel approached Jack once he was finished with his phone call, he saw that his lover was looking through several messages.

"Are those from your team?"

"Yeah. They're on the road from London now. They'll meet us at the hotel in northern Mull tomorrow afternoon. I had the desk guy book us on tomorrow's morning ferry to the island. The hotel on Mull is expecting us." 

"Good. Jaskie is already there and getting the clan mobilized."

Jack looked up from opening the door to their hotel room. "Clan mobilized?"

"Yes. We should be able to find out who did this using the selkie network in the Hebrides. There are no greater gossips than a bunch of selkies."

Jack snorted a laugh. "Gossipy seals? This should be good."

After the men had settled in, ordered room service because they were too tired to go out, and were finally relaxing on the bed after eating it, Jack decided to get some clarification on the kind of people Daniel's family were.

"Danny, you mentioned that it isn't easy to capture an adult selkie. What did you mean by that?"

"You've seen how strong I am, Jack."

"Hell, yeah, you're almost a match for T, and he's a power lifter."

"Well, remember that I'm only half selkie. An adult pureblood selkie could take T and throw him across a room without even straining. They have more efficient circulatory systems even in their human forms, which means greater respiratory capacity."

"Wow. That much muscle power along with the ability to travel quickly through water will be a distinct advantage for us if our perp is on one of the Hebrides." Jack smiled and reached over to stroke Daniel's lips gently. "If you got all these genetic advantages over us, then how come you need to wear glasses, eh?"

"To see under water, the eyeball has to have an odd shape to it. If I saw perfectly in air, I would be almost blind in the ocean. Most pure selkies are extremely near-sighted when they're in their human forms. Uncles Jaskie and Solahn are nearly blind without contacts. Because of my genetics, I'm slightly short-sighted both on the land and the sea, but I can see as a seal fairly well. I've never been able to wear contacts because of my allergies, presumably inherited from my father. So I wear glasses."

Jack leaned over, took Daniel's glasses off and placed them on the bed stand. "Hey, I like knowing that I'm the only one who can see those beautiful eyes of yours like this. It's like you without your glasses is my little secret."

Daniel let his lover kiss him, relaxing against the strong body with the trust he'd felt from the first time he'd seen Jack, that day in the cold Irish Sea.

"You can keep me as your secret, Jack. That's okay by me."

They made love and fell asleep in each other's arms immediately afterwards, as both were tired from the long day of traveling.

* * *

The trip on the ferry was, to put it succinctly in Jack terms, "cold as a witch's tit." Daniel didn't feel the cold as badly as his lover, but he used the comment as an excuse to pull the older man into his arms to share some body warmth. 

As the boat moved into the Mull harbor, Daniel saw his two uncles standing on the dock waiting for them.

"Look, Jack, there they are!"

All O'Neill could see were two smallish men, both with dark hair and swarthy skin color, enveloped in long black leather jackets.

* * *

Once the ferry docked, Jack got a closer look at the two selkies. They looked very much alike, though the resemblance to Daniel wasn't as strong. They stood about six inches shorter than Daniel's six feet height, with broader shoulders, chests and bigger arms. Both men had dark brown hair, and they also each had startling white streaks at the front of their hairline. Daniel had shown Jack a picture of his mother, and she had had the same white streak, swarthy complexion and gentle brown eyes.

Daniel allowed his uncles to hug him, though he usually wasn't comfortable with people other than Jack touching him. 

"Jaskie, Solahn," Daniel pulled Jack up to meet his relatives. "This is my partner, Colonel Jack O'Neill. He's offered his retrieval team to help us get Ophid back, as I told you on the phone."

When Jaskie shook hands with Jack, the Colonel suddenly felt the pressure increase in the smaller hand that gripped his. Despite the bones in his hand being seriously squashed, Jack's expression didn't change. He kept his brown eyes on the selkie, not acknowledging the other's superior show of strength.

Jaskie, his testing of O'Neill's mettle complete, just curled up his lip in approval.

"Thank you for coming to help, Colonel O'Neill. Daniel mentioned you were in Special Ops in the Air Force?"

"For fifteen years, until I retired."

"Why did you retire?" 

Daniel was about to interrupt, knowing how Jack hated to talk about the death of his son, when his lover surprised him by answering calmly, "After my son was killed in an accident, I decided that I'd had enough of fighting and war, at least for a while. A year later I met Daniel, and didn't want to have to hide what we had, so I made my retirement permanent and went into the private sector instead. I do the same thing I did in the service, only now I have better equipment and my services cost a hell of a lot more."

"Thank you for being frank with me, Colonel, and please accept my condolences on the loss of your son. You need to know in advance that it will be difficult to sell you and your team to my clan; Most of them are rather suspicious of the land-bound, but it shouldn't be impossible." Jaskie smiled at Daniel, reaching up and fluffing the taller man's hair playfully. "Fortunately, young blue-eyed Daniel, here, is a favorite of the family. It is obvious how happy he is now that he is with you. That should win you some favor. I have checked your company's credentials, and it has quite an impressive list of successes. Daniel told us that you know about his heritage?"

"Yeah, he's, uh, you're all selkies."

"Do you believe your team will be as open-minded as you were when it is revealed to them what we are?"

"They wouldn't care if you were squids that walked on land, uh, Jaskie. My team would follow me into hell if it was required to get the job done, and they won't talk about the trip to outsiders. Your secret will be safe with us." Jack smiled, his brown eyes twinkling. "Working with people who can turn into seals shouldn't throw them too much after some of the stuff we've been through together. Though I wouldn't recommend trying that handshake on my buddy T. He might decide to take you up on the challenge."

Jaskie laughed, his big brown eyes shining. "I think I can see why Daniel is so fond of you, Colonel."

Flushing at the complement, Jack responded, "Call me Jack. I'm retired, ya know. And I think he's pretty neat himself." Now it was Jack's turn to ruffle a blushing Daniel's hair.

"Jaaaacccckk, you're embarrassing me, here!" He smiled at his lover. "I might as well not bother to comb my hair around you guys, since you all seem to forget the fact that I'm not five years old any more! Jack, this is my mother's other brother, Solahn. He's an artist; he painted that picture of my seal form that you stole from me as soon as I moved in with you."

"I *appropriated* it for the living room, that's different than stealing it. Hey, what other old fly boy has a picture of the blue- eyed seal who saved his life, eh, Danny? How could I resist?" Jack shook the other selkie's hand, rather gingerly after Jaskie's strength game. "You caught him exactly the way he looks in moonlight; the only thing shining are his baby blues." 

"Do you often see my sister's pup in seal form in the moonlight, Jack?"

"Sure do. We swim together every night that we're both home. Of course, I have to use a wetsuit."

Daniel pointed out as they all headed towards their transportation, "Actually, Jack hangs on to me and I pull him around in the water. I do all the work."

Their nephew's fond, yet dry, comment caused the other two selkies to crack up. Once they were all seated in the Land Rover, Solahn turned to look at Daniel and Jack where they sat in the back seat. "I would dearly like to paint the two of you playing like that. Would you allow it once we have returned Ophid to the clan?"

Daniel's look of entreaty towards Jack melted the military man's spine, as usual. "Okay, Solahn, you can paint us when we swim together. Could I commission you to do a painting of just Danny, but as a man? I'll pay your price, which Daniel tells me is pretty high."

Jaskie chuckled from the driver's seat. "My, Jack, you really must have it bad to agree cart blanc to pay Solahn's regular commission. His last painting sold for two hundred thousand dollars and change."

Jack's bulging brown eyes when he heard the price cause the selkies in the car to break out laughing again. They seemed very merry people who loved to laugh. This contrasted to his overly-serious-at-times Danny. Jack guessed that's what losing his parents young did to the archeologist. 

Finally Solahn took pity on the flabbergasted airman and said in his gentle voice, "If you succeed in getting Ophid back for us, Jack, I'll do the painting for free."

"My team and I will do our damnedest to get him back alive. I give you both my word on that. They really are the best." 

They arrived at the hotel and checked in. Jaskie wanted to wait until Jack's entire team had arrived before he introduced them all to the other Mull selkies.

* * *

"O'Neill. It is good to see you again." 

T bowed his head; a small upward lip curl was the quiet man's version of a smile. The big ex-recon marine never talked much, but his face could be pretty expressive when he wanted it to be.

"Hello, Sir." Samantha "Sam" Carter, formerly of the Air Force, smiled at Daniel and Jack. "We've got all the stuff you requested, and then some. You'll be happy with it, I think."

"Good job. You got the underwater rifles?"

"Yes. It was pricey, though, and the harpoon ammo they use were even pricier."

"We'll return them if we don't use them. If we need them, though, they'll be worth their weight in gold." 

Jack turned to Bray next, who was the oldest member of his team. Normally he wouldn't even have considered having a man in his sixties on a field retrieval team. But after the ex-SEAL beat Jack in every single martial contest the Colonel could come up with, he'd learned his lesson. The man still had what it took to be successful in the field. 

"Bray, how's it hanging?"

"Longer and stronger than yours is, O'Neill, as usual. Now I only need to convince pretty young Daniel of that, so he can have a real man for a change."

Daniel blushed. Bray was always teasing him like that. The old SEAL was gay, and he had taken to the archeologist immediately as soon as he had met him.

"It isn't how long and strong it is that's important, Bray, it's how well you use it. I'll stick with Jack." Blue eyes playfully slipped over to his lover as he added, "For now."

All of them laughed, and the two full-selkies noted the close relationship between these land-dwelling warriors.

O'Neill finally spoke to his last team member, Harry Maybourne. Harry and he had served together on countless missions in the Air Force. When his friend had retired, Jack had made him an offer he couldn't refuse to come work for his company.

"Harry."

Sardonic blue eyes caught the Colonel's brown ones. "Jack."

"It sounds like you did good at scrounging. As usual."

"I aim to please."

Jaskie decided to speak up. They needed to get to the sea so that the humans could be introduced to the selkies.

"Jack, we should be going so that everyone can become acquainted with the clan."

"Sure. Danny and I will ride with you and Solahn, and the others will follow us, okay?"

"Fine."

Now was the hard part. Jack had to convince a bunch of hard and experienced soldiers that his lover was a part-time seal!

Piece of cake!

* * *

Part 3

It was cold and misty at the northernmost point of Mull. 

"O'Neill, I do not understand why you have brought us here. Shouldn't we be setting up a command center back at the hotel?"

Jack stopped his climbing down the small cliff to answer T's question. "You guys gotta see something first, and we're gonna be getting some intelligence down here. Just keep climbing."

Finally all of them were fighting to remain steady against a fierce wet wind and were huddled together for warmth. The selkies ignored the cold wind as though it was as warm as some tropical paradise. The sea beat a steady splash on the small strip of beach in front of them that ran along the granite cliff.

O'Neill turned to his team. "Guys, Daniel and his uncles need to show you something. Something you're going to swear can't exist. Trust me here, it's all real." He looked over at Daniel, who reached in and took out his seal pelt from a backpack he had been carrying. The archeologist then took off his clothes.

"My uncles are going to get help up here, guys. I'll stay here with you, after I show you what Jack means."

Daniel's uncles also took out their pelts and stripped. The three men walked down to the sea, put their pelts over their shoulders and turned into seals. Jack noticed that the full-selkies transformed quicker than Daniel did. The two older seals swam off, and Daniel transformed back into himself and put back on his clothes.

The faces of his team were priceless, and the Colonel wished that he had a camera right then.

"O'Neill, what is this?" T demanded.

"Daniel needs to explain."

Daniel did a good job in explaining the history of the selkies, finally ending with his own particular heritage.

By the time he had finished answering all their questions, a bunch of seals were gathering in the shallows near them. As though they had choreographed it, all of them transformed to humans at the same time.

Jaskie led the other men and women out to greet the team.

A small woman with a nasty scar on her face that went down her naked body almost to her belly glared at them, her brown eyes hard. A spate of furious ancient Gaelic came out of her mouth next. Daniel and Jaskie responded in the same language, finally winning a reluctant nod from her.

"Jack, Jack's friends, this is my clanswoman and the mother of the pup who has been taken. Her name is Lecaia."

Sam spoke up, her blue eyes round with shock at all she had seen. "She doesn't sound like she likes us very much."

"That scar was caused by a hunter of seals, a land-bound hunter, who harpooned her and killed her selkie mate. She has no cause to trust humans."

Jack asked Daniel, "Does she speak English?"

"I speak your barbaric tongue, land-dweller."

"Ma'am, my team and I are here to help get your, uh, pup, back."

"Why should we put our trust in your kind, when it was your kind who took my Ophid?"

"All I can say to that is I know what it's like to lose a son, uh, Lecaia. My son was killed, but your son is probably still alive somewhere. We have to fight fire with fire, so you need land-dwellers to fight the ones that took him. I can see that you have suffered greatly from my kind. But remember, Daniel is part human, and he doesn't have an evil bone in his body. Not all of us are out to kill or hurt you."

Hard dark eyes bore into Jack's as the female selkie, who seemed to be the leader of the others, took his measure.

Daniel walked over to Jack, slipping his arm around his lover's waist. "Jack is a land-dweller with honor, and he is kind, Lecaia. He and his team are warriors of the finest magnitude as well. I ask you to accept their help. I love Jack, and would trust him with our secret and with my life in a heart-beat."

The dark eyes of the woman softened as she listened and watched Daniel. The archeologist had that effect on women and men alike, and Jack smiled inwardly. No one could resist his Danny, not even this tough harridan.

"He makes you happy, Danyel, he treats you well?"

"Yes. We are life mates, cousin. Please accept their help, Lecaia. We can't do this alone, and you know it."

She nodded her head. "The clan will allow these to help us, then. Come, there is much to discuss, and my pup is suffering even as we speak at the hands of the scum who have captured him."

"Uh, Daniel?"

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't they put on clothes, or something?"

Now Lecaia barked out a laugh. "You do not like your own form shown to you, landman?"

"Of course I do, ma'am. It's just that we land-dwellers are not accustomed to seeing people naked. It's, um, well it's distracting to us."

Another laugh, and Daniel could have sworn he saw an interested glint in his fierce cousin's eyes. "I see your people still have so many inhibitions. That, at least, has not changed over the years. But we shall do as you wish."

She waved her hand, and suddenly she was clothed in a sleek and clinging brown jump-suit. Her compatriots did the same.

Jaskie took over the conversation. "What has the clan learned of the abduction, Leccie?"

"We have learned who has taken Ophid, and where they have taken him. Robert Tormsan, the head of Tormsan Technologies, has taken Ophid to his personal home. It is a large ancient fortress on a cliff on Chantille Island. Some of the clan are studying the area in more depth at this moment. It will be difficult to breach, as there is only one way in, and that is heavily guarded."

"Where?" Sam asked, confused.

Daniel murmured, "That's old Gaelic for Coll Island, about ten miles north and east of here."

"How many guards?"

Lecaia looked over at Jack. "Three at the gate, and who knows how many more inside the castle walls. The castle stands upon a high cliff, with only one road leading up to it. You understand that it will be difficult to approach without being seen?"

"Are the castle walls intact enough for us to rappel up them?"

Now respect showed in the selkie's eyes. "Yes. It is crumbling in spots, but most of it is still strong enough to take your weight."

"That will leave us plenty of feet and hand holds, then." He turned to his team. "Any comments, guys?"

"We can't purchase stealth motors for the inflatable rafts, Jack. Those are only available to the military still." Harry commented.

Jack knew that if Harry couldn't get it, then it couldn't be gotten, at any price. "Damn! I didn't think of that. They'll hear us coming miles away."

Jaskie spoke up. "We can help you there, Jack. If your people have scuba gear, we selkies can carry you to the island, the same way Daniel does when he and you are swimming together."

"That's over ten miles, Jaskie. We'd be fully loaded with scuba gear, weapons and explosives all wrapped in watertight pouches. You guys are strong, but can you handle a person with about seventy pounds extra for that distance? On top of that, it would have to be done close to the surface so we don't get the bends, as well as within an hour, or we'll run out of air. Not to mention how we'll get back after the retrieval with no air left."

"We can move that quickly through water, and selkies are extremely strong. Carrying you and your gear won't cause a problem. We can also carry two of your deflated boats with us, and we'll tow you back in those since we can't bring the engines along under water with us."

T came up to Jaskie and looked down his 6 foot seven inch nose at the smaller man. "I do not believe that any of your people are strong enough to carry me and a full pack. I weigh almost three hundred pounds."

Brown eyes stared up at brown eyes, and Jaskie smiled. Jack noticed that most of the selkie's teeth were slightly pointed. They frankly scared the seasoned soldier shitless, they were so strange. /Thank god Danny's teeth are normal./

"Perhaps you would like a demonstration of the strength of a full- blooded selkie?"

"Uh, T, maybe you shouldn't..."

"Yes. Show me that what you claim is not just the wishful brags of a small creature."

/Sheesh, I really have to work on T's arrogance. He's gotten really bad since that pro-wrestling show asked him to guest star those times./

The selkie moved with a speed that was hard to follow, he hit T in the stomach with his head and shoulders, picked the large man up over his head, and casually tossed him out into the ocean.

Twenty feet out into the ocean, actually.

Once T had swam back to shore, he came up to Jaskie, bowed his head in respect, and said, "I am sorry if I gave offense. You are indeed the strongest being I have ever encountered."

Jaskie smiled that weird predator's smile again. "I believe I will ask Tornoth to carry you, my friend, as he is the strongest of us. I nearly strained a muscle lifting you. You are almost as large as a killer whale." He turned to the pack of selkies and said something in Gaelic. 

A short selkie with shoulders as broad as T's and arms that were bigger than the big ex-Marine's thighs came up. He was shaped almost square, he was so wide. Strength oozed from him.

"I think I can handle your bulk, land-dweller. Though the ride might not be very comfortable."

"I am honored to have you carry me, Tornoth." T bowed his head in a show of respect.

"Okay." Jack broke in. "We'll rappel up, split up into a retrieval team led by me and a distraction team led by Carter, then we'll all meet back on the roof to rappel down after we have our package. Now we need to get our stuff together. Time's a-wasting, people. Let's go back to the hotel." He turned to Jaskie. "We'll meet your people back here in three hours, okay?"

"Yes, that will be fine."

"What are you guys going to do while we're up there trying to retrieve Ophid?" Jack thought to ask the Selkie. 

"We will bring our own weapons, Colonel. Leave ropes for us to climb, and we will fight by your side."

"Oh, for crying out loud! We don't know the amount of opposition in this place. We're better off just my team going in and retrieving your man by stealth. We can't bring a bunch of civilians along with us to confuse things."

"Colonel O'Neill, you forget who you are talking to. You also forget what we are. We are not just "civilians", as you put it so disrespectfully. We are selkies, which means that the weakest of us could easily break one of you in two. With our bare hands, of course. We will not be left behind like children. Either we all go in, or you can leave this to us."

"Jack, Jaskie has a point. Even I'm almost as strong as T. We'll be able to help you, even the odds if that place has as many guards as I suspect. Let us go."

It wasn't a request, and Jack glowered at his lover for a second. Finally his brown-eyed glare relaxed. "Okay, but everyone takes their orders from me, or we're out of here."

Daniel nodded. "Agreed." He turned to look at his uncle and his cousin. "Jaskie, Lecaia?"

Both selkies nodded. They knew when it was important to have a clear chain of command. 

"Okay, let's go get geared up, people! Up the cliff, now."

The team could hear the barking of seals as they made their ways up the cliff. Daniel stayed behind with his family, knowing that Jack would bring him what he needed to help out.

* * *

"I'll take you, Jack."

Jaskie stepped forward after hearing that. "Daniel, you are not strong enough to carry a fully loaded human male ten miles. Sach will carry O'Neill. You will carry one of the boats."

Blue eyes blazed suddenly. "He's my lover, and I'll carry him, Jaskie!"

Jack pulled his lover over to the side and whispered to him, "Danny, you're only half selkie, and you aren't as strong as they are. The deflated boats only weigh sixty pounds, versus me at 180 plus a fifty pound pack. Please, just carry the boat."

Daniel looked all ruffled from his anger, making Jack suddenly want to grab him and drag him away somewhere for a quickie. A sentiment that, if he had expressed it, would have pissed the younger man off even more. "Okay, I'll carry the damned boat! But I don't like it at all!"

Jack smiled, moving into his partner's space. "I'll make it up to you later, okay?"

Daniel melted under Jack's determinedly sexy manner. "Oh, all right. I'll change so Jaskie can harness the boat to me."

Jaskie attached the two boats to Daniel and another smaller selkie in an efficient way with two pieces of rope. The seals looked dwarfed by the large folded boats, but they didn't appear to be hindered in any way from swimming. Jack and his team put on their wetsuits and scuba gear, started breathing through the masks, then Jaskie strapped each one of them to a selkie in seal form. T looked ridiculous strapped to the short wide form of Tornoth, but the selkie moved in the water easily.

Once on their way, the humans remained as still as they could in order not to pull the selkies off balance. It was a cold wet ride that took almost the entire hour of air in their tanks. Still, the sheer speed the seals could travel put the humans in awe of their allies.

Jaskie, who carried the other boat, turned back into a man first once they reached the shore. He unstrapped his boat, helped Daniel out of his burden, then he unstrapped each human from a seal. They stowed the boats under a rocky outcrop, and Jack, T, Harry, Sam and Bray shot rope-and-pulley darts up the cliffs in the shadows. The sharp barbs of the hooks caught in the cliffs, and after testing their weights, the five of them activated the pulley mechanisms. They shot up the cliffs, guiding their bodies with their legs while they held on with their hands. After they were up to the base of the castle on the cliff ledge, they let the ropes down again so the next batch of people could come up. It didn't take long before all of the selkies were up and spread out on the three foot wide ledge. 

Jack's team repeated the maneuver with the castle walls, and soon all of the combatants stood on the crumbling castle ramparts. Jack had moved over to the thick wooden door leading down from the roof. The ancient oak door was secured with excellent quality hinges and a sturdy padlock. He was reaching for his c-4 explosives when Lecaia put her hand on his arm.

"Let Tornoth open it, landman. It'll be quieter. Leave the explosives for our distraction."

Jack thought about it for a second, then nodded, motioning the strong selkie forward.

"Quietly, okay?"

A sharp-toothed grin in the darkness was his only answer.

The door came up with a quiet thump as the selkie exercised his great strength to pull it off hinges and lock. They slipped into the dark opening like rats into portholes and split up for their various tasks.

Jack, Daniel, Lecaia, Bray, T, and several selkies moved into the bowels of the castle. They avoided the modernized lighting and the guards and personnel who walked the corridors easily. No matter how many lights were put in the thing, this was still a dark and dingy ancient castle. The gloom wasn't completely pierced. All Jack's team needed were a few shadows, after all.

By the time they got down to the place where Ophid was being imprisoned (his mother literally followed her sensitive nose to where her son was being held), loud noises from above were letting the team know that the distractions were going down as planned.

Jack came up behind a large guard, silent as a ghost, and clubbed him over the head with his silenced rifle, dropping him as he stood. Next to him, Lecaia slit the other guard's throat, holding her hand over his mouth as he died.

"You didn't need to kill him, just knock him out!" O'Neill hissed into her ear.

The selkie grinned at him, looking extremely feral with the sharp teeth and mad brown eyes. "They will learn to never touch a selkie again!"

Jack shot her one more quick glare, then efficiently gagged and tied his guy and moved to where his team was taking care of the other people in the way. Ophid was being held in a small cell in the dark. Tornoth and T made quick work of the steel cell door, pulling it apart with matching grins of pleasure in the destruction.

Poor Ophid, a young man with the look and coloring of the other selkie, had obviously been hurt pretty badly. His nude body was bandaged rather crudely. 

"They are friends!" Lecaia whispered to stall her son from attacking. T picked up the hurt selkie in his arms and they made their retreat.

The trip down the castle walls and cliff wasn't as easy with an injured man. Tornoth lowered him down in a sling they'd brought along for the job. The party found the boats, quickly inflated them with the automatic pumps, and the humans got ready to get inside them.

An argument took place between Lecaia and Ophid. The young selkie wanted to turn into his seal form and swim with his clan.

"No! Stupid pup, your blood will draw sharks to us! You will ride in the boat with the land-dwellers!"

"I'm not bleeding any more, Lecaia! I can swim. I don't wish to be carried in that, that *thing*!" He pointed at the dinghie.

Daniel came over to his cousin. "Ophie? I'm riding with the land- dwellers because I'm a little tired after the swim over. Why don't you ride with me and keep me company? I sure could use it."

Since hardly anyone could resist a pleading Daniel, Ophid gave in, satisfied that he had saved enough face for the time being. "Okay, I'll go if Daniel goes. He needs me to guard him from these land- dwellers."

Finally the two boats were in the water and moving along briskly under the accumulated seal power towing them. They were spotted once by a large spotlight, but Sam Carter sent an expert shot into the brightness and the night plunged into darkness once more.

Ophid refused to be taken to a human doctor, instead he asked them to take him back to Seal Island so he could heal in peace. So the boats dropped him off there first, then most of the selkies towed the humans back to their beach so they could return to the hotel.

* * *

Two months later:

Jack looked up from where he was eating a tuna sandwich and watching a hockey game. Daniel had a large package in his hands that had just been delivered by the mailman.

"What's that, Danny?"

"Um? Oh, it's from Uncle Solahn."

"Hey, ya think it's the painting I commissioned?"

"Probably."

Jack fidgeted while Daniel painstakingly opened the ornately padded package.

"Aw, Danny, for crying out loud, faster or lemme do it!"

"Jack, paintings are easily destroyed or damaged. Be quiet and let me open it my way."

Finally Daniel had the wrappings off and they saw it was two paintings, not one. Daniel handed the first one to Jack to look at, after he had looked at it for a bit.

Solahn had painted Jack waist-deep in sea froth, his gloved hand stroking a frisking harbor seal. The seal laughed up at the grinning man, a sharp-toothed smile on its face and bright blue eyes glowing in the darkness like twin lanterns. The obvious love between the sea creature and the human land-dweller showed both in posture and expression.

"God it's... god, he got you so... It's like you're ready to step out of the picture into the living room, Danny!"

"Jack, are you going to look at this one?" Daniel held out a smaller framed painting, a sweet smile on his face as he watched his lover's pleasure.

O'Neill reverently laid down the first painting and took the smaller one from his lover's hands. In this one, Solahn had painted Daniel nude, sitting in a window seat, a book in one hand and a pencil in the other. The picture Danny was concentrating on his reading, brows furrowed and lips pursed in his concentration. The unconscious grace that was a legacy of his selkie heritage was clear in the unconscious pose of Daniel's beautiful body.

"Jack? Say something. Don't you like it? Do you think I look fat?"

Daniel's questions broke through Jack's admiring gaze and thoughts. "Uh, no, of course you don't look fat. You look gorgeous, like you always do to me." He looked down on the painting again, holding it with reverence. "It's so, uh, so *you*, Danny!"

"Solahn sent a note with them. It says, "The only blue-eyed selkie is a wonder to behold, in any guise. I just wish I could capture him more like he truly is in life, instead of these pale imitations. Consider these as our thanks for a job well done. -S-"

"Jack? Jack? Speak to me."

Jack pulled himself from his fascinated perusal of the painting of his lover. "Hmmm? Sorry. What?"

Daniel sat down next to Jack on the couch. "I think I'll ask Solahn to do a nude of you. What do you think of that?"

Jack sat back and put his arm around Daniel. "Only if I don't have to freeze my balls off like I did posing for that ocean painting. Wetsuit or no, that fucking Mull water is freezing!"

Daniel smiled and snuggled into his arm deeper. "I warmed you up nicely afterwards, though, didn't I?" He whispered into Jack's ear.

"Yep. Wanna warm me up some more, right now?"

A nip on his ear and a whispered, "What took you so long to ask?" was the selkie's only response.

Daniel followed Jack into the bedroom and they stripped, teasing each other a bit with the slowness of it all. 

Daniel silently decided to take charge, because he reached back under his pillow and got the bottle of lube out from under it. 

"I want to make love to you, Jack, and you make love to me. Remind me of how much I love you, how much a part of me you've become."

Jack stroked his cheek, feeling the rasp of his ultra soft bristles against his hand. "You're the better part of what we have, Daniel. I've never been real good with relationships before. You've seen it yourself. I'm a sarcastic, arrogant bastard who likes having my own way. You deserve better, you know."

"Why don't you let me decide what I deserve, Jack? Now, shut up and make love to me!"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" 

"I'd like to do it face to face, Jack. Would that be too much for your bad knees? I know they've been sore from the rainy weather the last few days."

"How about if you do me from the side, and I'll love you face to face? You are younger, ya know, and can make like an acrobat better than me." 

He smiled at Jack, and the older man felt his stomach and throat constrict at what he saw in Daniel's eyes.

"Okay. That works for me. On your side, O'Neill, and let me prep you!"

He felt Daniel kiss his neck and snuggle behind him, lifting his left leg up with his hand. Before the younger man went for Jack, though, he reached over and stroked Jack's dick and balls, using his fingernails on the head until his lover had to stop him or come way too soon.

"You're a little tense, still. Here, get on your hands and knees for a bit and let me help you relax."

Jack did it, having no idea what the younger man was going to do next. When Danny's tongue touched his asshole Jack jumped, but Daniel's strong hands held him in place. The rimming he gave Jack had the older man quivering in response, and if he had kept it up much longer, O'Neill would have come without anything touching his dick. He hardly noticed it when the tongue was replaced with a finger, then with two. Jack had a tight grip with one hand on the root of his dick to keep from coming too soon. He didn't want to rush this.

"Are you ready?"

"Sure, come on in." Before he did, though, Jack felt his lover's hand grab his cock and start tugging and twisting it. 

Once Daniel was fully inside his lover, Jack started talking. "Make love to me, Danny, make me hot, come on, move harder! Faster!" 

Daniel did as ordered, his hips moving to give Jack what he wanted so desperately. Finally he leaned forward over and grabbed Jack's cock and started pumping. That was it for the older man, he didn't have a chance. Jack came so fast and hard he thought for a minute that he had died, afterwards. 

"Jack, you okay?"

"I swear, Danny, my heart felt like it stopped for just a second."

"Well, you'd better not do that until I get to finish."

"Hmmm." 

Daniel laughed at Jack's sound of satisfaction, speeding up his pace until he climaxed with a quiet groan. 

After a short rest, Daniel pulled out of his lover and ordered, "Now, sit up against the bed, Jack, I'm going to straddle you!"

"Shouldn't I prep you, Danny?"

"Fuck that! I want you face to face, and I want you now, do you hear me, flyboy?"

"I hear you, Doc, come on down." Jack reacted in his usual way to Daniel's feral voice and his bad words, finding himself hard again.

When he lubed Jack up, the Colonel couldn't help but groan, Danny was being rough with his renewed urgency. When that beautiful man sat on him, bringing him inside himself with no preparation, Jack almost let loose right there. But something in Daniel's face made him use all his willpower to hold back. His lover wanted a slow, romantic lovemaking, and that's what he would get.

Jack pumped at the same rate Daniel moved on him, their tongues working each other's mouths at the same pace. When O'Neill figured his lover was ready to explode from the prostate work, he took hold of Danny's dick. Holding tightly, Jack started squeezing and pumping the hard organ, and Danny came like a freight train, shooting all over Jack's chest, his chin, and the wall above them. His tightening up squeezed Jack to the brink of pain, and he exploded at the same time, marking his Danny as his, HIS, forever. 

Jack bit Daniel's collar bone at the same time they came, sucking hard on it afterwards, adding to the marking. The message was clear to both men. MINE.

When he finally pulled off of Jack, Daniel moved down and snuggled up to his lover, his face in Jack's neck.

"I can get awfully used to this, doing this for the rest of our lives, you know."

"Yeah, me too, Danny, me too." 

Sleep came to the selkie and the man, with no dreams to interfere with their rest.

The End


End file.
